“Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate the rules of bullying and harassment,” is what Republican lawmaker Elise Stefanik asked the representatives of the top colleges in the US. The hearing in the US Senate came after protests over the Hamas’ Israel attack roiled campuses across the US. Alumni and donors, citing incidents of antisemitism, have said colleges aren’t doing enough to create a safe learning environment for Jewish students.
Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were grilled today by Republican House members who claimed that the universities themselves “stood by, allowing horrific rhetoric to fester and grow” against Jews. The events were prompted by Hamas’ surprise attack that killed 1,200 Israelis.
The presidents of all three universities, during the hearing, said that they won’t tolerate antisemitism on their campus. But Harvard’s Claudine Gay, Penn’s Liz Magill, and MIT President Sally Kornbluth have come under severe criticism on social media for not explicitly saying that calling for the genocide of Jews constitutes a violation of their harassment policy.
X chief Elon Musk also jumped in on the debate and tried to “help out” the university officials.
“Let me help them out here: Calling for the genocide [death] of anyone obviously constitutes harassment,” Musk said in a post sharing the video of the questioning.
Let me help them out here: “Calling for the genocide [death] of anyone obviously constitutes harassment.” https://t.co/GH7lXLxxd6
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 6, 2023
The three presidents are all relatively new in their jobs leading some of the most prestigious universities in the world. Gay took the helm of Harvard in July, and Magill started a year earlier. Kornbluth, who began her job in January this year. All three maintained that the harassment policy would come into effect based on the conduct of the students, and not just their statements.
College and university leaders across the globe have searched for the right words and actions to comfort their communities since the war began. Antisemitism is not the only concern for educational institutes though. They also are seeking to prevent Islamophobia and other forms of bias and hatred while safeguarding freedom of expression for faculty members and students in a time of protests and demonstrations.